The first day of hurricane season...

ON THIS DAY --

June 1, 1985

ON THIS DAY -- the first day of hurricane season -- Aesop`s fable of the boy and the wolf is a vexing reality to the corps of specialists who work to protect the nation against hurricanes. Their warnings are, indeed, dire, but they aren`t crying wolf.

Every year, the opening of the six-month hurricane season is heralded by recollections of killer hurricanes and those that were more bluster than punch. And since no hurricane has hit the southeast Florida coast in three years, the predictions and warnings seem to many Palm Beach, Broward and Dade county residents like the false pleadings of Aesop`s perverse little boy.

But the publicity surrounding hurricane season is not so mean-spirited.

Yes, the stories of 10- to 20-foot tidal surges, winds of 150 miles an hour, torrential rains and flooding are meant to scare, but the stories also are meant to tell the public of a very real menace to life and property and of precautions that can be taken within the 24-hour notice given if a hurricane is headed your way.

Advice from the National Hurricane Center in Miami is simple: Seek structurally safe shelter that is not in a flood-prone area, stock up on non- perishable food and water, and have on hand batteries and transistor radio.

The most recent evidence of a hurricane`s ability to kill comes from the small nation of Bangladesh, near India, half the world away. Last week, a hurricane swept out of the Bay of Bengal, pushing a 10-foot wall of water over one island where as many as 10,000 poor farmers lived. International Red Cross officials said the death toll could rise to 40,000.

Similarly, the potential for disaster along the U.S. coastline ``is tremendous,`` says Neil Frank, director of the National Hurricane Center.

While Florida does not have farmers living in thatched huts along its shores, it does have thousands living in oceanfront condominiums and thousands more living in low-lying areas. In the event of a hurricane, those areas will have to be evacuated.

Because of recent, global climatological changes, more hurricanes than normal are expected to form this year. So, listen to the warnings and act with intelligence. Your life could depend on it.